SASD receives increase in state aid

The Sheboygan Area School District will receive more than $3 million in additional funds from the state this year compared to last year, according to figures released this week by the Department of Public Instruction.

The district is slated to receive $71,916,266 in state aid for 2015-16, a 5.17 percent increase from last year.

That $71.9 million figure will be reduced by about $401,000, however, due to the number of new students attending local voucher schools.

That’s because for the first time students new to the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program will have their vouchers paid for with money their public school districts receive as aid from the DPI. The district will retain a percentage of the per-student dollars.

Assistant Superintendent of Business and Operational Services Mark Boehlke said in previous years, school districts lost out on funds they could have received from having voucher students attend a public school in their district.

The difference this year is that districts now can track the amount and they also receive about $3,000 per voucher student because the DPI credits the districts for their residence.

“In the past, we just didn’t know how many were going and we didn’t know what the impact was,” Boehlke said. “I think that this was just a way so that districts weren’t hit too badly by that, by losing revenue from those kids moving out.”

In Sheboygan County, five schools — four in Sheboygan and one in Plymouth — are part of the Wisconsin Parental Choice Program.

School districts without voucher schools may still see a reduction in their state general aid figure because they have residents receiving a voucher to attend a school in another city or county.

That’s the case for Howards Grove. The district will receive $4,772,280 in state aid this year, up 0.39 percent from last year, but $45,222 of that is reduced from the total because of six residents who are receiving vouchers to attend a school registered with the WPCP, said Superintendent Chris Peterson.

To cover the loss, the state grants public schools the authority to increase their revenue limits. A school district’s revenue limit is composed of two things — state aid and property taxes.

The 10 area districts receiving a reduction because of the WPCP will have the authority to raise revenue limits by more than $1 million this year.

Sheboygan’s piece of that is $568,891. Boehlke will not present the district’s finalized budget until Oct. 27, but said he doesn’t anticipate the district will need to raise taxes this year.

“I think because our state aid still went up, I wouldn’t expect a levy increase,” he said.

In addition to the SASD and Howards Grove, four other school districts in the Sheboygan area saw increases in state aid this year — Cedar Grove-Belgium, Northern Ozaukee, Plymouth and Random Lake.

State aid is based on a formula that takes into account enrollment, property values and expenditures from the prior school year.

Kohler and Elkhart Lake-Glenbeulah routinely see the largest decreases in state aid received because the their property values are higher than other county districts. Both will receive a 15.06 percent drop in aid from last year.

Overall, 44 percent of the state’s 424 public school districts will receive more state aid this school year than they did in 2014-15. Statewide, $16.1 million also will be transferred from public schools to private ones due to the voucher program.

The amount of total state aid available for school districts is unchanged from last year at $4.476 billion.

Reach Kali Thiel at 920-453-5134 or kthiel@sheboyganpress.com

State aid, district by district

Area school district's 2015-16 state aid, percentage change from last year, WPCP aid reduction and WPCP revenue limit exemption authority: